Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!SUN.COM!dshr
From: dshr@SUN.COM (David Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: help
Message-ID: <8802062352.AA24340@devnull.sun.com>
Date: 6 Feb 88 20:36:33 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 39

> You can  find  out  whether  your  window  is  mapped or  not via Xlib's
> XGetWindowAttributes request.  Being unmapped is not, strictly speaking,
> exactly the same thing as being iconized.  However,  if you're inquiring
> about a  top  level  window mapped  by you  (by some  request or toolkit
> operation in your program), but never unmapped by  you, it's  a safe bet
> that the window manager unmapped it.  If all you want to know is whether
> to refrain  from  drawing  because  your  window's  unmapped,  this is a
> winning strategy.

This is misleading,  not to say wrong.  Almost all window managers will
re-parent your top-level window to be a child of a window belonging to the
window manager.  When the WM iconifies you,  it will unmap its own
window,  causing your top-level to be mapped but unviewable (because its
parent is unmapped).  Thus,  you will never find your top-level unmapped,
even when you are iconic.

With R2,  there will be a manual called the "Inter-Client Communications
Conventions Manual".  Although it will still be a draft,  it will be pretty
close to the way things will eventually turn out.  It explains how to
find out if you are iconic reliably (examine the WM_STATE property on
your top-level window,  window managers must maintain this and you can
get PropertyNotify events on it when they change it).  There is much more
in the manual (its currently 22 pages) about how you relate to window
managers and also to the selection service.

Unfortunately,  it will take time for these conventions to be finalized
and blessed,  and more time still for existing window managers,  toolkits,
and so on to be upgraded to adhere to them.  In the meantime,  things will
be frustrating because there may be no clear recommendation on what to
do,  or because there is a clear recommendation but it doesn't work yet.
In some cases,  resolving these problems involves experimentation,  because
the implications of some  of these conventions in circumstances like the
window manager crashing are difficult to predict.  We are trying to resolve
these problems as fast as possible,  and in the meantime we are supplying
the manual in draft form to explain what is already pretty certain.  Many
of these issues were thrashed out in a sideline meeting at the recent X
conference.

	David.